Mustangs Newsletter - January 1-15
Parents, please share with your student
The spring musical auditions will be happening in January. The audition sign up will be online and will open on Wednesday, January 3rd. Once you secure your spot using your full name and email address you will be sent the audition form to complete before auditions.
Here are all the audition materials.
Submit a baby picture of yourself to be included in the 2023-2024 yearbook! Take a photo of your favorite baby picture and upload it to share with your peers.
CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT BABY PICTURE
Submission deadline is Friday, January 19th, 2024.
On behalf of our WEB Leaders, thank you all for making our "Beauty and the Feast" Fall Food Drive a success. We collected $200 in donations and 836 pounds of food items - enough to make over 1,000 meals for our neighbors in need this holiday season.
After taking the time to count carefully, we have our Advisory winners - congratulations to the following Advisory classes:
6th grade - Mr. Kestly
7th grade - Ms. Whiteside
8th grade - Mr. Herdan
Overall winner - Ms. Rasmussen
Each of these classes will be treated to a feast after winter break!
Jason Olson
The School Bus Safety Poster Contest is looking for submissions from students to design a poster based on the theme, Driving Safely Into The Future. This contest allows students to use their artistic abilities and knowledge of school bus safety to create a colorful and informational poster. All students should be encouraged to participate in this contest through their respective schools.
Winners will be selected in each of the following categories – PreK-K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9-12 and all special education students. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in each grade level have the opportunity to win gift cards, art supplies, and other prizes. These students will also advance to the state competition where there are opportunities to win additional prizes, including tickets to a Minnesota Twins baseball game. State winners advance to a national competition with a grand prize of $500.
Poster Details: See attached documents above for all the specific details (Contest Flyer, Contest Rules, Contest Label). Posters must be on 11”x17” or 12”x18” tagboard and feature the theme “Driving Safely Into The Future” must be included in the poster design.
Please read the details carefully as not following directions could result in disqualifications.
Submissions: Please send all submissions to Debbie Schmoyer in the Transportation Department at the district office --11200 93rd Ave N in Maple Grove before Friday, February 9 before February 9.
Similar to elementary school PTOs, PACT (Parents and Community Together) works to build a strong, inclusive community at MGMS. Every MGMS parent, caregiver and staff is a member.
Primary ways to get involved and make an impact include donations, volunteering and advocacy.
Donations
Thank you again for your monetary donations to the fall fundraiser and your on-going donations towards the PBIS store, The Closet and the Card Game/Board Game drive.
Volunteer Opportunities
The three student leadership groups at MGMS (Student Council, Fuel Up Team and WEB Leaders) will help define and host social and service events for the school community throughout the year.
Watch for details and volunteer opportunities related to these events. Email mgmspact@district279.org to get involved.
Help Us Help Our Students: Donate your gentle used card games and board games!
Do you have old decks of cards or quick type board games you'd like to get rid of? Please feel free to drop them off in the Main Office any time Monday - Friday, between 8:00 AM and 3:00 PM.
Examples are:
- Uno
- Go Fish
- War
- Crazy 8’s
- Old Maid
- Exploding Kittens
- Regular Decks of Cards
- Trouble
- Sorry
- Bananagrams
We will use these games to continue community and relationship building with our students during lunches and Student’s assigned Game Days.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Dorn at dorna@district279.org.
At MGMS we practice the Positive Behavior Intervention Systems (PBIS) to support the teaching and learning of positive school behavior. Students have the opportunity to earn Mustang Pride Tickets. We will have weekly drawings of these tickets where students can come and pick out a treat if their name is drawn. This is where we are asking for parent support by way of donation. If you feel so inclined to donate non-perishable items (think variety box of chips or candy bars, some cool pens, fidgets, etc.) or anything you can think of that a middle schooler would be excited about, we would appreciate your generosity. Donations can be brought to the front office and we will stock for our "store". Thank you so much for considering to support our efforts to reward our students for being amazing humans!
Best,
Jennifer Hinker, Assistant Principal
Maple Grove Middle School is fortunate to have the "Closet". We have received donations of clothing items, hygiene products, school supplies, shoes and more. As winter approaches we do have winter outerwear that families in need may have. If you are in need of this service, please reach out to your grade level counselor.
We are also in need of donations. As you are looking through your own winter gear (or if you have family/friends with growing middle schoolers of their own that may be willing to donate), please drop them off in the main office. We are looking for warm winter jackets, winter hats, scarves, gloves & mittens.
Thank you.
Hello from People Incorporated,
We are happy to announce that starting the 2023-24 school year, District 279 and People Incorporated has placed a licensed mental health therapist at our school, full-time. Michelle Rosenau, MA, LPCC will be on-site Monday-Friday, year round, to provide mental health therapy services to Maple Grove Middle School students.
Please click on the line below for more information.
ABSENCES
If your child is going to be late or absent from school, please call the school with the reason for the absence. The telephone call eliminates the need to send a note with your student when he/she returns to school. Excused absences consist of illness, medical appointments, and family emergency situations such as a funeral. Oversleeping, missing the bus, or skipping school are not excused and are considered truancy.
MGMS 24 Hour Attendance Line: 763-315-7603.
APPOINTMENTS/EARLY RELEASE - HERE IS WHAT YOU DO
1. Send a note with your student in the morning
2. When the student gets to school they go to Student Services to get a white pass
3. At the stated time on the pass, your student leaves class and comes to the office with the white pass and signs out in the main office
4. The person picking up can wait in the car (very helpful on cold winter days)
If you didn't send a note, you will need to come in with your driver's license and we will call your student down when you arrive. This procedure is in place to ensure student safety.
ATTENDANCE
If you received a call saying your child was absent one or more periods, please check your ParentVue account for the period your student was absent. Have your child talk to the teacher for the class that they were marked absent. The teacher will then communicate with our attendance person.
We have three accounts parents should have; ParentVue, Schoology and EduTrak. ParentVue allows you to see attendance, testing scores and report cards (we do not mail them out). Schoology allows you to see assignments and communicate with the teachers. EduTrak is how you add money to your student's lunch account, pay fees for sports, or other fines. Attached below is a document that will help you set up accounts and answer any questions you may have.
